Tales From a Galaxy Far Away
by Oberon
Summary: STSG xover.When Sheppard went looking for an antidote for McKay he never dreamed that it would lead to a whole new galaxy of war. A new galaxy where humans and the Federation are fighting for their right to survival.
1. Prologue

Tales From a Galaxy Far Away

Prologue

By Oberon

Disclaimer: I don't own anything. Not the characters, not the shows, not the franchises, nothing. Stargate Atlantis, Stargate SG-1 belong to MGM. Startrek belongs to paramount. I don't own nothing, don't even bother suing cause I ain't payin nothing.

Summery: When Sheppard went looking for an antidote for McKay he never dreamed that it would lead to a whole new galaxy of war. A new galaxy where humans and the Federation are fighting for their right to survival.

1Col. John Sheppard mentally slammed the breaks the moment the puddle jumper's HUD showed the dark and jagged calcium spikes on this side of the stargate. John's face hardened with concentration even as the Atlantian built puddle jumper responded, yet they were still coming at the jagged ceiling too fast. The colonel sensed the jumper's sudden deceleration even as he became aware of a most unmanly scream from the man sitting on the copilot chair. "Yes," John thought, definitely a scream-like-a-little-girl scream.

The puddle jumper stopped with a sudden lurch, just an inch away from the sharpest spike of calcium that would have pierced the jumper's transparent front panel – right where the copilot's head would have been.

John grinned at his copilot, more taunting than friendly. "You big baby," adding more salt to an obvious tender wound.

By now, the man, a Dr. Rodney McKay, had realized he wasn't dead just yet and lowered his arms which he had moments before held protectively over his face. Rodney breathed heavily, the fear of death still rushing in his blood. "Yes-yes, that was very mature." Rodney, a slightly chubby Canadian with a bolding hairline stuttered in self-defense of his most unmanly reaction.

John found amusement from the good doctor's discomfort. Juvenile, yes, but still funny; at least it was to Col. John Sheppard. His boyish smile betrayed his rugged exterior. John righted the vertically suspended puddle jumper. The stargate they came out of had toppled over in the millenniums since the last Altarians had set foot on this world.

John set the jumper gently on the cave floor.

Teyla Emmagan patted Rodney on the shoulder. "If it makes you feel any better, I thought you were very brave."

Ronon Dex, the last member of the four-member team, only gave Rodney an amused chuckled before leaving the Canadian alone in the jumper. The rest of the team had set out without Rodney.

"Rodney…"

"WHAT!" An irritated McKay shouted back when he heard John Sheppard called out his name from outside the jumper.

"Dial the gate," Col. Sheppard ordered in his clam and serious tone.

Still, being the curious scientist that he is, Rodney McKay couldn't help but to ask the Colonel why are they leaving when they just got here. "Why, what's wrong? We haven't even found that signal we yet."

Rodney got his answer when three pairs of sinister red eyes, arranged in an upside down pyramid formation, stared at him as he turned around. The only thing that separated the Canadian and these eyes were the jumper's windshield. Rodney panicked and he was certain this hairy monster saw his fear. Mistake.

The creature's head split open revealing 3 rolls of razor sharp teeth dripping with a thick saliva and hot foil breath that fogged up the transparent windshield. Rodney staggered in his chair and trembled with irrepressible fear. Something shot out from the creature's open maw, something strong enough to crack the transparent partition between them and leave behind a disgusting splatter of gooey saliva.

"No don't!" Rodney shouted to his friends outside the puddle jumper with their P-90s trained at the creature's exposed back. They were going to save Rodney by filling the creature full of lead. But the puddle jumper's windshield wasn't bulletproof, this Rodney knew.

John hesitated; Rodney was directly in the line of fire.

The creature didn't care. It attacked the jumper again trying to get at Rodney. This time it pierced the windshield - the tip of its powerful tongue managed to penetrate the cockpit.

The tip of the creature's stretched tongue ended in a nasty stinger. Drops of green liquid dripped from this bone-like stinger, when it met the jumper's controls, the liquid immediately began to eat at the puddle jumper's console.

Rodney changed his mind. "OK, shoot it!" He yelled to Sheppard.

Piercing bullets stuck at the creature's backside in rapid succession. The concussive force from two P-90s and one alien ray gun slammed the creature into the already cracked windshield. The creature let out one last mighty roar of pain and rage, its tongue still lodged in the jumper. Then it was silent. All 8 legs of the creature went limp but even in death, it clung onto the puddle jumper.

"Must have been hungry," Ronon shot one last red bolt at the back of the creature's skull.

Ronon Dex was a large man with dark brown skin and an intimidating attitude. Ronon had been a Runner once, sentient game to a predacious species called the Wraith. The Wraith had fed on Ronon's people and took a sick interest in him when he fought back. They let Ronon escape, but followed him wherever he went, taking twisted pleasure from bring death to the poor saps that sheltered the desperate Runner. Only the Col. Sheppard of the Atlantis expedition broke through his solitude. Only they could end the Wraith's perverse game.

"You saying I'm fat?" A pale faced Rodney McKay made his way to be with the rest of the team.

"Well you have put on a few pounds since I met you..." Ronon jabbed, but his eyes were still on the creature. Just incase it wasn't dead.

The Canadian scientist, insecure at the moment, looked to John Sheppard for some comfort. "You think I gained weight too?" The colonel's grin irritated Rodney.

"Maybe just a little," John couldn't help but tease his friend, just a little bit. Every now and again, Rodney needed some humbling if just to keep him grounded.

Rodney gasped. "There's nothing wrong with eating good." He protested.

"If you call that eating," Ronon was referring to the party they threw McKay last night.

"Har Har. Get it in while you can. You know you're going to miss me when I'm gone."

"Of course we will Rodney." Sheppard said.

"Really?"

"Sure," Sheppard said, sounding insincere. And irritating Rodney some more.

"You're not just saying that..."

"Of course we will," Sheppard reassured him.

"We all will," Teyla added to what Sheppard had said.

Rodney pointed to Ronon with his thumb. "Even him?"

The big man was characteristically quiet. Teyla spoke for him though. "Even Ronon will miss you."

Rodney didn't know what to say. The truth was, he's going to miss them too.

"Give me a hand with this guy would you?" Sheppard stuck the barrow of his P-90 into the 8-legged monster. It was hairy and green, like it's covered by algae. "Well at least its blood isn't acid." The creature in fact looked like a cross between a giant tick and the alien from the Alien movies.

"Oh... No..." Rodney's face twisted in panic. He ran back into the jumper.

"What? What's wrong?" Sheppard follow him with Ronon and Teyla right behind.

"That's what I was afraid of," The control for the jumper was gone, eaten away by the creature's venom. Nothing more than a big hole and scorched circuits where the controls used to be. The team could clearly see the cave's flood through the hole.

When the creature died, the entire content of its venom glands squeezed out through the stinger at the tip of the tongue, which had became lodged in the windshield. The creature had enough corrosive venom to melt the controls, melt through the deck plat and hull of the puddle jumper.

"Its blood isn't acid, but its venom certainly is."

"Can you dial the gate without it?" Sheppard had a bad feeling about this.

"Let's take a look," McKay was back in his element. The slightly chubby Canadian scientists began by ripping out circuit boards in jumper's aft section. Fifteen minutes later, the rest of the team had Rodney's answer.

"I got good news and bad news. Which do you want to hear first?" Rodney came back with a cocky smirk on his face. This look of Rodney's told John the scientist had a plan but wasn't telling just yet because it would make him seem more brilliant once he explained the problem.

Sheppard decided to humor the Canadian. "Ok... I'll bite. Give us the good news first."

"I wouldn't have any problems writing a simple program to dial the gate."

John rolled his eyes. "What's the bad news?"

"There's a short circuit around the power grid. If we try to reroute power the whole jumper is going to blow."

"So just hold out in the jumper, close the doors and wait for the cavalry."

"Exactly what I was thinking," McKay smirked at Sheppard.

  


Twenty minutes later, Sheppard entertained himself by repeatedly bouncing a rubber ball off the jumper's walls. He saw McKay working on the damaged section of the Jumper.

"Hay, I thought you couldn't fix that?"

"Well, what else am I going to do?" The Canadian replied.

"I just thought you would want to spend you last mission doing something a little more exciting. And as for doing. How about stay away from the cockpit for starters."

"What? Why?" McKay looked up from his work, perplexed.

"Because. They might see you?" was Sheppard's slightly annoyed reply.

"Who might see me?"

"You know, those things."

"The Xenomorphs?" Unknown to McKay, the stinger lodged in the jumper's windshield still had one last drop of venom left in it. While Rodney bantered with John, that drop finally came out.

"Xeno what?" Sheppard was curious, though he just knew it was going to be another of McKay's geek things.

"Xenomorphs. That's what they call those things in the movies..." McKay flinched. Something had fallen on his hand, something wet. And it has immediately started to burn.

Sheppard saw the distress on his chubby friend's face. "Rodney?"

McKay panicked from the sudden realization of what just happened. "I thought it was dry!" He shouted in hysteria. The small area of skin on the backside of his hand blistered like it the scorching from acid.

Shepaprd held his friend by the shoulder, stopping Rodney's wild shaking. Ronon gripped McKay's hand, inspecting the damage.

"It's nothing, just a little burn." The big man let go of Rodney's hand, losing further interest.

But McKay was hysterical beyond reason. "Just a little burn! I could be poisoned! I could die. Oh God, I'm going to die aren't I?"

Sheppard remembered from basic aid that most venoms need blood contact to have an effect, the fact this venom came out of a stinger confirm that this was the case. Sheppard handed McKay his canteen. "Here."

"What do you want me to do with this?"

"Just keep pouring water over the wound. You should be fine until Atlantis checks in."

"John," The distress in Teyla's voice called their attention.

Sheppard stepped around the charred hole in the jumper's cockpit, watching over Teyla's back, he noted not all was going exactly were as planed. "This is bad..."

"Now what-" McKay's face turned pale. "We're surrounded!" The Canadian was hysterical. "There must be hundreds of 'em." In reality there were few than a hundred of the creatures.

"Don't' worry," Sheppard told the others. "There's no way those aliens could get through the hull."

Ronon slapped a fresh power cell into his ray gun.

The team heard a loud clang on the hull, then another followed by more and more impacts. The 8 legged monsters swarmed the jumper, pushing and shoving.

After a vicious push, the jumper settled back on the cave floor with loud thud. McKay cowered next to Teyla, everyone else hold onto anything they could grab at the last moment.

"They're trying to roll us over!" McKay realized with a start.

"I hope you lost a leg!" Sheppard yelled to the creatures outside. In response, the creatures filled cave with a deafening shriek.

Ronon grabbed Teyla by the hand and pulled her upright just as the creatures once again tried to roll the jumper.

There was a second shriek from outside and suddenly, the aliens stopped.

"Did we win?" McKay was the first to speak up.

"I think we just got a much bigger problem." From the cockpit, Sheppard saw a new player in the cave. The 8 legged aliens had lost interest in them, instead they're surrounding a much bigger alien.

The new alien is at least 10 times larger than the smaller ones. Its thorax, from what John could tell, was a thick dark green carapace - made it look like a long green tube. Just like the jumper.

The larger alien opened its maw a let out another shriek. Like lightning, its tongue shot out and speared one of the smaller ones that got too close. The wounded creature thrashed, trying to escape even while the tongue reeled the smaller alien into the larger's open jaw. It roared once, just before the larger alien's jaws snapped it in two.

The smaller aliens backed off, giving the larger one more room. But they still surrounded it and outnumber it. The smaller ones let out a roar for their fallen comrade, a challenge to the larger creature. Then, at some unseen signal, they swarmed. The large creature let out another shriek, spearing another of the smaller creatures, it moved wildly, trying to shake off more of the smaller ones. But the smaller ones were relentless; once more they worked in unison to try to topple the larger creature. To get at its soft underbelly.

"The smaller ones must have mistaken the jumper for their enemy." McKay remarked but backed away when one of the smaller aliens flew into the side of the jumper. It got up, the first few steps it look dazed, then immediately returned to the fray.

"I'm not so sure about that," Sheppard kept his eyes on them. "I think the larger one is female."

"Somehow, the thought of that makes me feel dirty." McKay quipped.

"It would make sense," Teyla came up behind them. "The smaller ones doesn't look like they're trying to hurt it"

"Hmmm... I just hope they didn't leave their spunk all over the jumper's hull. On second thought, Zelenka will have to be the one to fix the jumper." Rodney thought of the look on Zelenka's face when he sees the jumper. Somehow it made the Canadian giddy inside.

The large alien speared another of the smaller ones. There were only a few of the smaller ones left, most of the others went splat on the cave wall or met their end at the tip of female's stinger.

"I say we wait until the female leaves then pick off the males that are still alive." Sheppard suggested to his team. "There shouldn't be that many of them, I counted at least 20 got eaten and 11 went splat on the walls."

"22 eaten," Ronon corrected.

The female finished off the last males by stepping on its head, crushing it.

"Go away," McKay tried to shoo it off, though he feared attracting the victor's attention.

"I don't think that's going to work," Sheppard said from beside McKay. The large female, instead of heading away from them, have taken a sudden interest in the jumper.

"Perhaps it thinks the jumper is a rival dominate female?" Teyla suggested.

"So instead of getting humped by horny hairy monsters we're going to get bitch slapped by the pissed off hairy monster queen." Sheppard ignored McKay's sudden outburst. The colonel had a plan.

"How many of the males are still out there?" Sheppard asked McKay, the Canadian was the only one with the life signs detector.

"The female is the only one I'm picking up."

Sheppard looked to Ronon who only primed his ray gun in readiness. "Stay out of reach of its tongue, from what I could tell it doesn't stretch more than 5 feet. Aim for the head, the body is heavily armored." Sheppard turned to Teyla. "Teyla, cover our six." Then the colonel faced the Canadian scientist. "Rodney, stay put."

The three opened the jumper's bay doors, their weapons drawn.

The female was still some distance away when Sheppard and Ronon stepped out. They check around the jumper to make sure any of the males wasn't hiding. Beams from their flashlight found nothing. Sheppard held up the light to the ceiling, scanning the sharp hanging spikes should the aliens be able to climb. Sheppard gave Ronon a look which signaled the other man to get ready. They stepped into the open, Talya with her back to them, covering the rear.

The female was still coming, slowly, a giant behemoth creeping on eight short legs.

Sheppard flashed his light at the female's face as it was too dark to get a clear shot otherwise. The female retched her head away from the light and let a shriek. The female stopped in her tracks then backed off, slowly.

"Guess they don't like lights," Sheppard noted. The colonel trained his light on the female's face, keeping up with it even as the female moved her head wildly to avoid the light. The female hissed at Sheppard before completely losing interest in the jumper and the humans. She retreated into a tunnel and disappeared into the darkness.

Talya let down her guard once the female was out of sight. She stood with the others, looking down the tunnel the female had disappeared into. "It is good that..."

"Get down!"

The team ducked without hesitation and Taylya felt a rush of air where her head would had been.

Someone opened fire and the team heard the sound of bullets ricocheting off the cave walls, forcing Teyla, Ronon and Sheppard to keep their heads down. Then the sound of gunfire stopped and colonel Sheppard looked up to see a pale faced McKay clutching a P-90 for dear life. The muzzle still smoking.

Something green dropped down from here McKay had trained his gun. It still twitched.

"Is it dead?" The Canadian breathed heavily, still wide-eyed and pointed the P-90 at where the spot the alien fell from.

To answer Rodney's question, the alien stood up on its 5 remaining legs though shaking and blooding from many bullet wounds. It was one of the male aliens and it wasn't happy.

Rodney took a step back defensively but it was too late. The angry male wouldn't have it and before anyone could react, its maw split open and it speared McKay with its tongue stinger. It nailed the Canadian scientist straight into his shoulder blades, tearing soft tissue and scratching the bone.

McKay staggered, recoiling from the wound and sinking to his knees as his vision blurred.

Sheppard didn't need to give the word, Ronon and Teyla acted in concert - 2 P-90s and one ray gun plastered the male alien to the side of the jumper. When it was all over, Ronon delivered a final shot.

Sheppard and Teyla ran to McKay's side, the poor Canadian was still awake but in serious pain.

"It's ok, we got it." Sheppard examined the open would on McKay's shoulder. It was a nasty open wound about and inch and a half across.

"Guess second times the charm," McKay took a horrified look at his wound. "Oh... This is bad..." Teyla caught Rodney before his head hit the ground.

"Rodney!"

"Doctor McKay!"

  


Teyla's gentle hands held Rodney down while she wielded a combat knife against the Canadian's pale skin. She slit open Rodney's uniform, Teyla winced, there was a lot of blood.

"How is he?" Sheppard knew without asking that he would not like the answer.

"He has lost much blood but I'm afraid the creature's poison would be fatal if untreated." She folded up some bandages from their emergency med-kit and pressed firmly on Rodney's wound to stem the flow of blood.

"Oh God, I'm going to die, aren't I?" Rodney came around just in time to hear Talya's grim assessment.

"You're not going to die," Sheppard reassured him, absolute certainty in his voice. He would not let his friend die, period.

"You're just saying that to make..." Rodney's eyes rolled back to back of the skull. But he was still alive and breathing.

Sheppard felt there was only one thing he could do. It will be risky and he's probably wrong, but he wasn't about to do nothing and watch his friend die. "Ok, you guys hang tight." He made a move for Rodney's life-signs detector.

"I'm coming with you," Ronon came up behind the colonel, ready to keep watch over the other man's back.

"No, stay here," Sheppard commanded. "There might be more of those things." Sheppard check the portal life detector then waved for Ronon to shut the door behind him. "If Atlantis checks in before I get back, forget about me and just take care of Rodney. OK?"

"What about you?" The big man asked.

"I'll be fine. Got plenty of ammo," Sheppard patted his P-90.

The last thing Ronon saw as the hatch closed was Sheppard's back disappearing into the same tunnel the female had taken.

  


Sheppard stayed hidden long enough to make sure there weren't any stragglers. It was a good thing he had found cover behind a large pillar inside an open chamber. He would have come face-to-face with about 40 of these male aliens in a cramped tunnel if not for the Atlantian portable life signs detector. Sheppard made a mental note to avoid single roaming eight-legged aliens in the future, seeing they like to travel in gangs of 30 to 40.

John stood on a high ledge overlooking a pit.

"Ok, this is interesting..."

A fire pit. Every few seconds a random build up of natural gas erupts from underground causing a pillar of fire to raise high into the air and scorching the walls. From what Sheppard could tell, the fire came out of the many geysers on the floor of the pit. They were on the walls too. Now and then a horizontal wall of fire would blaze across the pit at odd angles.

No way around this, not according to the portable life signs detector - which showed the layout of the tunnel network - the only path to the surface lies on the other side of the pit. There was however, a narrow rail on the walls that Sheppard could get to from the ledge.

Cautiously, the colonel set one foot on the rocky rail. It crumbled beneath his foot, there was simply no way the rail could support his weight.

Sheppard decided to try his luck with the fire pit. McKay was counting on him to find help and John Sheppard was not about to let a friend die on some giant bug infested world. He was about to climb down the pit when he spotted the aliens, of the eight-legged kind, existed from a tunnel just below him.

Then, to Sheppard's eyes, the most curious thing happened. The lead alien jumped straight into a pillar of flame. Instead of being toast, the flames died down seconds before the intense heat would have roasted the eight-legged alien. The male landed on his eight legs then immediately broke into a spring, narrowly avoiding a cone of fire that flared up behind him. . It, or he to be more precise, careened around an erupting geyser only to come to a sudden and complete stop. The alien crutched down on all eight legs just as another geyser sent a diagonal column of fire where his head would have been. As soon as the fire died down, the alien sprinted toward the tunnels again, zigzagging between erupting geysers and narrowly avoiding a fiery death. The alien was almost across but had the final obstacle was a cluster of geysers that almost blocked off the rest of the way. The lead alien ran at the last group of geysers at full speed just as fire behind it died down. Without hesitation, the alien leaped into the air. Moments later, the first of the geyser in the cluster erupted. It would have fried the alien had it 5 feet to the left instead. Then it was across, and not a moment too soon, for less than 5 seconds later all the geysers erupted simultaneous. If it had not jumped across when it did, or waited before crossing the cluster, it would have not have made it across.

The green hair on the lead alien stood on ends, lifted by the hot upward draft from the erupted geysers. The alien signaled to the others to cross once the eruptions died down.

"Looks simple enough," Sheppard commented after the last alien crossed the fire pit. He had memorized the course and timing the employed by the aliens when they cross the pit. While Sheppard was fairly certain he got the path down, the timing was another problem. Still he could see the tunnel to the surface just on the other side and John Sheppard would save his friend, no matter what stood in his way.

Sheppard took off running into the infernal just as the first alien had done. He took one deep breath of the uncomfortably hot air, even as he ran at full speed, then dived headfirst into a pillar of fire. He felt the air become intolerably hot but even as he was about to let out his final words of "_Oh shit…"_ the geyser cut off and he cross over a pocket of extreme hot air instead of burning fire. The colonel landed on all fours, breathing heavily and smelling ozone, then immediately charged to the part of the obstacle course. An expanding wall of fire necked at John's heals even as he came up to an idle geyser. Sheppard dove to the side of the quiet geyser just in time to avoid its sudden eruption, which would have roasted the colonel if he had tried to jump across.

Sheppard breathed a sigh of relief, barely inhaling extreme hot air as the fire consumed most of the oxygen; he stayed down waiting for the geyser beside him to die down. Then a sound came through the roar of the fire, a shriek. Sheppard looked back, and through the flickering flame he saw one of the aliens standing just outside the fire pit. Their eyes met, John's two against the alien's six, and all six eyes told John that they wouldn't get along.

John wiped the sweat from his brow. "What you're looking at?" His voice dripping with sarcasm but he doubted the alien heard him over the open flames - or understand him for that matter.

The dying of the geyser next to John Sheppard signaled the beginning of a race. Just as the air cooled by less than a fraction; John Sheppard scrambled to his feet. The alien dove into the fire and like those before him, it timed the jump so the geysers cut off seconds before the alien crossed into the columns of flame.

Sheppard didn't stop to see if the alien made it across the first geyser, with all the speed he could muster, John Sheppard reached the second portion of this obstacle course. Sheppard headed for the geyser farthest to the right. Like he had seen the gang of aliens did before, Sheppard skit to a stop then twisted around to face the left. Sweat rolled off Sheppard but the colonel ignored the warning signal his body was giving off. He ran down straight path between geysers as fast as he could and breathing as much as he could. The geysers around him exploded, creating a narrow path - a safe haven from the thousand degree flames. Sheppard skit to a stop once again then quickly turned to face a lone geyser at end of another narrow path. Sheppard, exhausted now, but he pushed himself on, the heat drained his energy for more than he thought it would. When he reached the third turning point Sheppard was ready to lie down but he was too stubborn to give up, if he stopped now he would surely die of dehydration or suffocation. Whichever came first.

Stubbornly, John Sheppard zigzagged one last time between geysers and found himself with a few feet clearing between the next groups of geysers. Sheppard sank to his knees with exhaustion and quietly patted himself for clearing the second part of this obstacle race. "Yeah, still got it." Thanks to the sweating and stress Sheppard had trouble remembering what he had to do to clear the last part of the obstacle. But it came to him though.

The colonel's legs felt like gelatin, sore and painful gelatin. In a rush, Sheppard pushed on and with every fiber of his being he willed himself into a frenzied sprint across the open ground. He felt the rush of flames coming up behind him; in that moment he gave everything he had and leaped across the final group of geysers in his path. Pillars of flames exploded behind him but Sheppard sailed through the silent geysers, his timing was right on target, allowing him to outrun the fire behind him. Colonel Sheppard landed on his face, the dirt stuck to his cheeks and chin like a keg thanks to the sweat. He breathed heavily, thankful for being alive. He flipped himself over so he laid on his back then his eyes opened wide in surprise. Sheppard twisted his head out-of-the-way just in time to avoid the tongue stinger of an alien as it leaped through the fire. The alien reeled back his tongue even while still in midair, when in landed in front of Sheppard its stinger was back in its mouth ready to finish off the exhausted human intruder.

The roar of the exploding geysers drowned out the sound of P-90 fire. John Sheppard kicked the alien from his prone possession just to make sure it was dead. When he was certain the colonel managed to drag himself to the tunnel that would lead the surface. It was cooler here but only slightly so. Sheppard wiped sweat from his face then reached for his canteen only to remember he had left it with Rodney.

  


"Here, drink this." Telya Emmagan's gentle hands held the canteen to Rodney McKay's lips. She watched heartbreakingly as the Canadian scientist gulped down the water, choking and spitting every sip. She took the canteen away, after a time so McKay could breathe.

She, as the lead of the Aphosian people, had on many occasions presided over death rituals for those poisoned in the wild. For the Aphosians, being a people that essentially lived off the land, such incidents were unavoidable. The important thing was to treat the victims quickly after the bite. Now, Telya feared she might be attending yet another funeral. She once again checked McKay's bandages and winced. Dark necrotic tissue covered most of McKay's left shoulder and down the arm almost to the elbow.

"This-this, supposed to be my last mission… Come check out the planet with a strange signal, all routine." McKay muttered while half conscious. "Doesn't look like I'll be getting that Nobel Prize after all or woe Sam with my genius," the Canadian half chuckled half coughed. "I don't want to die! I got so much to do, still so much for me to do. Please tell my sister how brave I was at the end. Oh-oh better yet. Tell Madison, my niece, that I took down 2, no, 3, no, 30 of those aliens before that one got me. She looks up to her uncle Meredith." Rodney's eye's rolled back.

"Stay with me Rodney," Teyla shook the Canadian, trying to keep him awake but stopped when Rodney's eyes suddenly stared back at her.

"You think 30 is enough? Maybe you should say 300. Yeah, better go with 300-" again the Doctor's eyes rolled back into his skull.

  


Col. John Sheppard had literally reached the light at the end of the tunnel. The exhausted colonel limped every last step and finally, he collapsed just as the rays of sunlight brushed his man-boyish face. The fire pit had dehydrated Sheppard enough that he knew he wouldn't be making the trip back, not without help. Help was exactly what he came up here to find.

"Or not..." Sheppard found himself in the middle of a wasteland, a sea of desert sand extend as far to the horizon as he could see. It didn't make sense. According to the Atlantis database there was suppose to be an Ancient outpost on this planet. This planet was supposed to be a lush green world with several indigenous people seeded by the Ancients. "But that was 10,000 years ago," Sheppard realized. So where did the powerful subspace signal, that they could pick up from deep underground, came from? The initial remote-control probed sent through the Atlantis Stargate had detected a powerful signal that originated somewhere on this planet's surface. There is no civilization here, has been for a very longtime.

"Sheppard to Teyla, how's McKay doing?" No response on the radio then a crackle of static.

"Not good," Teyla's voice came though over the in-ear radio. "Doctor McKay passed out about 15 minutes ago and I have not been able to wake him since."

Sheppard sighed. "Has there been word from Atlantis?" He feared after all the adventures, Rodney McKay would fall victim to some bug aliens. "Don't think that, John." He told himself.

"Not yet. Have you located help?"

"No." but just then he heard something with the other ear. "Just hang tight. I got something here..." a whine like the hum of a jumper's engine.

There was something in the distance. It looked very much like an Atlantian puddle jumper, right down to the nacelles that jutted out from under the belly. Approaching at high speeds and flying toward him from a high in the atmosphere, it left a trail from the occasional cloud. But unlike the puddle jumper this angular box-like contraption was gray instead of the Atlantian dark green. It came at John's position from an angle and on the side of this shuttle, words written in English. Copernicus.

  


The single light in an otherwise dark room, shined into Colonel Sheppard's eyes. Of the interrogations by both humans and aliens this, as interrogations go this by far was the most comfortable.

"How did you get here?" The voice in the darkness asked again. The voice was intimidating but Sheppard expected some threats to his health that has yet to materialize.

"Look, I would love to play this game 20 questions but I have people in trouble. I will answer all your questions as soon as you sent help."

The man in the darkness leaned forward. Garbed in a gray and black uniform he appeared distinguished and clearly had the military feel to him. On the collar were 4 small golden pins which suggested the man's rank. From him, John Sheppard didn't get the sense that this man was not a professional interrogator. Rather he felt to John like someone in charge.

"Look son, I don't know what you're trying to pull but trespassing on Starfleet instillation is a serious offense. You better 'fess up or you ain't going to like the consequences."

To be continued…

Review if you want more. Feed my ego… Yeassss….


	2. Revisions complete, see C1

Chapter 1 has been recalled due to manufacture defects. 


	3. Chapter 1: For Real!

1"You know, this place isn't half bad. Could do with some colors though, and maybe some plants. A couple of _Guns and Roses_ posters and an Xbox, you could call this place home." Sheppard felt like he was talking to an empty room, which in fact he was. He stared at his captor, stoned faced and ridged, and the guard stared back at him wordlessly from across an invisible barrier. "So… what do you guys do for fun around here?" Sheppard leaned back on the bench in his little cell. Really, this place wasn't so bad. The bench wasn't as comfortable as his mattress back on Atlantis, but still, not bad at all.

"I see you've made yourself at home."

Sheppard looked up.

"Good, you're going to be in that cell for a very longtime. You lied to me, Col. Sheppard. No one was in those caves." The man's gray eyes matched his uniform. He had a distinguished look to his mirthless face. A face that made Sheppard wonder if the man had ever smiled once in his life.

Yet, it was a relieved Sheppard looking back into those grey serious eyes. "Has anyone ever told you look like Count Dooku? I mean, with that beard you look dead on." It was probably a good thing they couldn't find Rodney and the others. It means they were back in Atlantis, probably.

The man was not amused by Sheppard's antics. "Excuse me? Are you even taking this seriously? Son, you're looking at life in prison or at the least a very long stay at a Federation penal colony."

"Look, if you went down there then you must have found the Stargate. That's how we got here. In fact, my people are probably down there looking for me right now…" Sheppard stopped himself. Something was wrong, he could tell just by the man's blank express. "You did find the Stargate right? This big circular thing…"

"We didn't find a star gate and we didn't find your shuttle. You're just making things worse by lying to us. Cooperate or soon the matter will be out of my hands."

**Tales from a Galaxy Far Away**

Chapter 1: The standoff

By Oberon

**Atlantis**

The hulk drifted silently in space. Its appearance was unrecognizable, a shadow of its former glory, mutilated by an awesome force. For many cycles it had orbited the planet below as an ugly twisted mass of burned metal that marred the sky. However, today, its eternal journey through the emptiness was finally at an end. Already debris, smaller pieces of what it once was, succumbed to the pull of the planet below. The pieces of metal burned up as they entered the atmosphere over the vast oceans of the planet. Soon the main bulk of the wreck would share in this fate even while its brothers and sisters, all of them once glorious, looked on in silence - all waiting the day when their journey would end.

"Doctor Weir, the wreck will be entering the atmosphere within the next few minutes," Dr. Zelenka called out from his post a few paces from the gate controls.

"Thank you Radek, has there been any change in its course?" Weir asked, concerned for the native inhabitants of this world. Atlantis had moved to this planet almost 10 years ago. On arrival, the expedition had found the mainland already populated by a city-state civilization that stretched across the continent.

"Not as of yet," said the man with a slight Russian accent. Even after all these years working for Doctor Elizabeth Weir, Radek Zelenka still had not managed to shed his Czech tongue.

"Thank you Radek," Weir turned her attention back to the two people in her office. "Where were we?"

"Col. Sheppard had just indicated he might have found something on the surface. It was then we lost communication." Tayla recounted the tale to Elizabeth Weir. As the Ethosian sat there, in a place once occupied by the ancestors, and the only thing Teyla could think of was John Sheppard. If she could, she would go back to that planet right now.

"I should have gone with him," was Ronon Dex's only response.

"That doesn't matter now. What is important is that we get our people back," Weir assured Ronon and Teyla. But to rescue Sheppard meant she would have to risk the lives of others under her command. "We've tried and failed to establish radio contact. The only thing we can do now is send in a rescue party and hope for the best."

"I'm going," Ronon told Weir.

"I will go as well," Teyla said.

"Very well, but remember, this is a rescue mission. Don't take any unnecessary risks."

Elizabeth stared out the transparent partisan of her office at the retreating forms of Ronon and Teyla. From here, she could see the command tower - or what remained of it. The wall behind the stargate was gone, destroyed sometime ago and they had yet to repair it. Where a wall once stood, now Elizabeth could see a dark blue sea on which the city floated. On the horizon, the wreck of a once mighty starship burned as it streaked across the sky.

**Atlantis**

"Major Lorne, good luck." Elizabeth Weir looked on as the Major and his men assembled. From her position on the second floor of the control tower, she wished them the best of luck. They'd need it on that hostile planet.

"Don't worry, ma'am. We'll get him back." The Major gave the signal to move but he would be first to reach the gate and be the first to step into the shimmering portal. He stepped through the portal, his hands on the P-90 snapped up in a ready position. In an instant, he traveled halfway across the galaxy.

The first thing the Major saw after rematerialization was people pointing weapons at him. Military training told him this was a bad situation. His team was at a disadvantage both in numbers and the fact these people had him in their cross fire. His heart raced and he desperately tried to stay cool under pressure. He had no idea who these people were, what they wanted or even how he'd gotten here. He had no cover; he stood exposed on a ramp set on a floor of a large open room. There was equipment nearby but none that he could reach. If these people wanted to, they could easily take out his entire team.

This wasn't some cave with 8-legged aliens spitting poison. "This is a trap," Lorne realized. He remembered that he still had his hands on the P-90 and immediately he released his hold on grip, dropping the weapon to the ground slowly. He raised his hands into the air showing that he was not a threat.

If only he could reach his radio, he could warn the others not to come through. Too late, he heard the ripple of the Stargate behind him and the sound of his team raising their weapons in response.

"Lower your weapons!" Someone commanded on the other side of the lab commanded.

"No, lower your weapons," Ronon Dex replied calmly as he held his alien pistol firmly, the business end squarely trained on the person who had just spoken.

"Put them down," Lorne ordered Ronon and his man. Lorne didn't want a blood bath here, especially when his people were at an obvious disadvantage.

"We have you surrounded, lower your weapons or we will fire," the enemy repeated from behind the equipment they use for cover.

"And I say, you first." Ronon locked eyes with the man.

Major Lorne knew he had to do something fast. The situation was getting out of control. Gently the Major laid his hand on the barrow of Ronon's gun and slowly pushed it, lowering it to the floor.

"We surrender."

**Federation Outpost, System Unknown**

They took his rubber ball. Why did they have to take his rubber ball? As comfortable as it was in his jail cell, nothing could take away the fact that it was BORING. John Sheppard sighed. "Why did they have to take away my ball?"

"Colonel, you're alright," a familiar voice called from outside the invisible force field that kept the colonel prisoner.

Sheppard recognized that voice. It was Major Lorne, one of the soldiers under the Colonel's command.

"Major. Good to see that you could drop by." The man-child of a Colonel gave the disciplined Major his patented boyish grin.

"We came to rescue you," Major Lorne told the Colonel.

The Major didn't look like he was going to do any rescuing any time soon. The Federation men had confiscated the Major's standard issued P-90 and his sidearm. The Major stood regal though, ready to fight even without the usual black blazer that held all the equipment he no doubt would have brought on this mission. Still, like Colonel Sheppard the Major wasn't going anywhere, not while behind one of those invisible force fields. Their captors must have used that transporter technology of theirs to get the Major inside his cell without the Colonel noticing.

"Well, it's the thought that counts."

(-!--!--!--!--!--!--!--!--!-)

Upon Major Lorne's surrender, Teyla Emmagan and the rest of the rescue party had had their equipment stripped on-site. Their captors held them at gunpoint, forcing Teyla to raise her hands in the air while someone collected their weapons. Ronon was of course reluctant to give up his gun, but a hand from Teyla calmed the former runner. One of the captors told them not to worry; they were simply moving them to a detention area. Teyla didn't know what the soldier had meant but then she felt her body tingle all over. A second later, she saw a flash of light washing over her sight and the others in rescue party. She saw them dissolve and she began to panic.

It didn't occur to her that something had happened to her until she saw her surroundings change. Teyla found herself in a room with a seemingly open wall, she saw the other marines from Atlantis across from her. They were separated from each other by no more than a few feet of walking distance. Teyla approached the open wall but changed her mind. Intuition told her there were something to this wall, something that she couldn't see. She had confirmation seconds later when a solider in an identical room across from her walked into what appears to be a force field. The soldier bounced off the invisible barrier which momentary flared up, knocking the soldier to the ground in what was looking like a very painful fall.

"Do not try to breach the barrier," Teyla instructed the recovering soldier. There were two others Teyla could see, both in separate holding cells identical with her own. Corporal Henson and Johnson, the two marines stopped in their tracks after hearing Teyla's warning. It was tempting to test the barrier herself but soon Teyla resigned herself to waiting.

The Aphosian did not have to wait long before their hosts came for her. Men in yellow uniforms escorted her out of her cell and led her away.

"It is all right," Teyla reassured the marines still in their cell. "I will not be harmed."

Her hosts then took her to a secure room with a table and a single empty chair. An older man was across from her; he motioned for Teyla to take a seat at the empty chair.

"We mean you no harm," Teyla began. She studied the man, no doubt the leader of these people He wore a uniform similar to the guards, but black and gray whereas the guards were mostly yellow. The man's hair and beard were both iron gray, as were his eyes. "Our only purpose here is the safe return of Colonel Sheppard." Teyla spoke with all the diplomacy honed in her years as the leader of the Aphosian people.

"And why exactly was Colonel Sheppard here in the first place?" The man countered.

"We are explorers. Colonel Sheppard, Doctor McKay, and I arrived on this planet by way of the stargate. However, Doctor McKay was soon injured in the caves and Colonel Sheppard went to the surface to seek help," Teyla replied calmly, looking into the man's gray eyes, trying to convey her sincerity.

"Let's say I believe you. What assurance do we have that you would not reveal our location to others?"

This had never crossed Teyla's mind. It had never occurred to her that these people would be secretive to the point of paranoia. Though Teyla had to admit, this should not come as a surprise to her since this technological society could only escape the Wraith's attention by hiding. Still, Teyla judged that this man was willing to listen.

"Colonel Sheppard and the others, they are an honorable people. They will keep your secret if that is what you ask of them," Teyla implored. "Please, talk to them. Then you will know that I have spoken truly."

"You do not count yourself as one of them?" The grey-eyed man asked.

"I am Aphosian. Colonel Sheppard's people saved us from the Wraith even though it meant putting themselves at risk. They are brave and their cause is just."

It was ten years ago that Sheppard and his men arrived on Aphosia. They had come as explorers, much like how Teyla now, looking for trade. They were welcomed by the Aphosians. Teyla Emmagan was already chieftain then and she had offered them food and help in finding others trade partners.

It was the beginning of a mutually beneficial relationship but that very night, the Wraith came to Aphosia. The Aphosians were helpless, constant Wraith raiding over the generations had reduced them to a simple people that lived off the land. With little effort, most of Teyla's people became prisoners, soon to be food. Whisked away in an angry shriek that was the Wraith's trademark. The colonel and his men, however, resisted and managed to evacuate the remaining Aphosians to Atlantis – the home of the ancestors. From Atlantis the Colonel mounted a rescue mission and successfully freed Teyla's people. There was a great price; Colonel Sheppard was forced to kill the Wraith Keeper, the guardian of the Hive. This had been a declaration of war on an enemy, who had defeated the original occupants of Atlantis – the powerful people known as the Ancients.

"And because they are the only ones that would stand against the Wraith, I pledged to help them in their war. As for Colonel Sheppard, his people came from a distant planet called Earth."

(-!--!--!--!--!--!--!--!--!-)

The grey-eyed man had Major Lorne brought to him. Teyla Emmagan had created more questions than she'd answered and although he already established a dialogue with Colonel Sheppard, he wanted to hear from someone else.

"I heard from your friend Teyla that you're from Earth. Why don't you tell me about that?"

The Major, stone-faced, stared back at the grey-eyed man. "Lorne, K. Major, United States Marine Core. Serial number…."

The grey-eyed man sighed internally but didn't show his frustration. He slid a pad across the table for the Major to see. On it was a picture taken from President Bill Clinton's first Inauguration. Well-known even in the 25th century, this president carried the stigma of scandal even to this time. History recorded Clinton's incompetence during the Eugenics War, which had destroyed most of the world. The grey-eyed man's research had narrowed down these people's origin to the North American continent based on some of Colonel Sheppard's cultural references and military tradition. The colonel had provided an outdated reference but one found in the Federation cultural database nonetheless. The colonel was right though, he did bear likeness to this Count Dooku, a fictional character from old movies.

"Tell me Major, do you recognize this man?" He asked.

The Major said nothing and didn't even look at the picture.

"Come now Major, if you really would have us believe you're a member of the United States Marine Core then what's the harm in confirming what we already know."

Major Lorne did not intend to talk to these people or even look at the picture, but something told him that he should. Besides, the Colonel said they were all right if a bit overcautious. So he looked at the pad on the table, the person was not someone he recognized. "All right, I'll cooperate." He told the grey-eyed man. No harm in telling them that he didn't know anything. "But I still don't know who that man is."

The grey-eyed man passed him another picture. This one is an oil painting of the 16th US President

"And him?" asked the grey-eyed man.

The side profile of the man was unmistakable. The Major had seen the exact painting in Washington DC. "That's simple. Abraham Lincoln, 16th president of the United States." He wondered what exactly was going on.

The same thought was running through the grey-eyed man's mind. And he thought things like this only happened to Picard and the starship _Enterprise_. A divergence in history, that didn't fully explain everything, but it fit. Now he had to identify the point in time the divergence occurred. That knowledge would be helpful if these people caused any damage to the timeline. "And him?" This was a colored photo of an older man, very distinguished, depicted as he signed a document in what seems like the Oval Office.

"That's FDR."

"Him?" The grey-eyed man handed the Major a serious of pictures and the Major was able to identify each and everyone.

"John F. Kennedy. Richard Nixon. Gerald Ford. Jimmy Carter. George Bush." Major Lorne identified them in sequence. Why would they have him look at pictures of ex-presidents?

The grey-eyed man pointed to the first picture he gave the Major to look it – the picture of Bill Clinton. "But you have no idea who this man is?"

"That's right." The Major answered honestly.

There was only one last picture and this one was of a distinguished Indian in a red Shawani. This is the only known picture of the tyrant, Khan Noonien Singh. This man had ruled much of the world and was the most infamous of the bioengineered supermen that caused the Eugenics War back in the late-20th century. "And him?

"Sorry," Lorn replied. He didn't know.

The grey-eyed man stood up and motion for the guard by the door. "Thank you Major, you been most helpful. Please take the Major back to his cell." There was still one last question to ask, he realized. "Oh, by the way, who is your current president?"

The Major shrugged. "President Clinton." He answered easily.

The man's grey eyes went wild. He held up the picture of Bill to the Major to see. "But not this man?"

Major Lorne looked at the picture. Suddenly he made a connection. "You know what, now that you mention it. He does look familiar. Yeah, that's him, the President's ex-husband."

(-!--!--!--!--!--!--!--!--!-)

Colonel Sheppard saw Major Lorne returned to his cell. Obviously, the Major received the same _interrogation tactic_ as the Colonel.

"Anything interesting?" Sheppard asked as the guards placed Lorne back in the prison cell.

"Not really," the Major replied. "They made me look at a bunch of pictures."

"That's terrible," Sheppard said halfheartedly. "At least they didn't play _Barney the Purple Dinosaur_."

"Colonel, I think something odd is going on here…" Lorne tried to say.

At that moment, the grey-eyed man walked in. "Colonel, if you'll come with me." This was not a request. "There are a few medical tests we would like to run."

"It's not going to hurt is it?"

"It will be completely noninvasive."

"Glad I could help," Sheppard stood up and the force field came down. He glanced at Lorne. "Hang tight, be right back." He looked to the grey-eyed man questioningly. "I will be coming back, Right?" Those cold grey-eyes told Sheppard nothing. "Right…"

The guards flanked Sheppard, a sign for the Colonel to get a move on.

"So obviously you found the Stargate." Sheppard spoke up as they walked the halls.

"We were just being cautious, you must understand," the grey-eyed man told the Colonel.

"Yeah, I thought as much. I mean how could you NOT find a giant metal ring?"

They came to what Sheppard correctly guessed was the medical facility.

"Doctor, I have brought the subject."

Sheppard didn't like the sound of that.

A woman took Sheppard by the hand and led him to a fancy looking bed. Sheppard spared the woman a second glace.

"Please, lay still." She patted the strange bed thing. The woman saw the apprehension on Sheppard's face. "This is a biobed. It will allow us to take detailed readings of your physiology. Colonel, if you'll just lay here we can get started."

Well, the colonel couldn't see anything dangerous about this bed. It was fancy, didn't look too comfortable, but he doubt there was anything inside that would pop out and poke him. Still, you never knew. He hopped on the bed, a bit high but not too much, he laid back and got comfortable.

The woman, the doctor no doubt, left him to join the grey-eyed man.

"Heart, lungs, kidneys, appendix, they're right where they should be," the doctor announced.

Sheppard wasn't even aware the examination had started. He didn't feel anything, for one thing. Their stuff must be as good as the Ancient medical technology back on Atlantis, the ones the expedition couldn't make work. "That's because I AM human," Sheppard added, a bit frustrated at this point. He had been here all-day and only now they established that he was human.

"Hmmm… that's strange. He lack some of the most common antibodies found in almost every human."

"What does that mean, doctor?" The grey-eyed man asked.

Sheppard echoed the same sentiment in his head. "Yeah, what does that mean?"

"I have no idea. But if I had to guess, this man hasn't been infected with any of the common infections we come in contact with in the Federation."

"Thank you, Doctor. You've been of great help." The grey-eyed man turned to Sheppard. "There is still one more test I would like to run but that will have to wait until we return to space dock." He motion for the guard. "Please, take the colonel back to his cell."

Sheppard hopped off the bed. "I thought we were friends. Aren't we passed all that?"

"Unfortunately, son, until I get to the bottom of this, we have to proceed with caution. I'm sure if the situation was reversed you would insist on the same thing."

**Atlantis**

A steady turning of hard disks as data processed filled the air with a pleasant whirring sound. Rodney McKay stood as overlord, commanding his legions of beautiful peons. They scurried about, performing menial tasks of scientific experiments, all at Rodney's whim. Rodney would have called them his research assistants, his underlings. The truth was they couldn't get a shred of actual work done without him. "But they sure are good to look at though,"

One of his she-minions turned to Rodney; she looked suspiciously like Samantha Carter. "You must let go Rodney."

"Excuse me?" Usually the Sams wanted him NOT to let go.

"To live, you must first die. McKay, you must know what's going on with your body. You're dying; this is your only way out."

A feeling of dread flashed through Rodney's body. The events in the cave flooding back to him; the aliens, the stinger, and the poison. "Oh God..."

"Yes, even now your friends are trying hard to save you. I'm afraid their efforts will not be enough." The minion smiled gently, a face full of warmth and love. "But death does not have to be the end."

"You're-you're an Ancient." Rodney blurted out. "And-and you're here to offer me ascension."

"I'm afraid it's not going to be that easy. To ascend you must know that you are worthy of ascension." The Sam-ancient held Rodney's hand. "And despite everything, all your knowledge, all your accomplishments, you are not worthy. Admit it McKay, in your heart, you know this to be the truth."

"Wait. Wait. Wait. Just hold on a minute!" Rodney pushed the ancient away. "Just how am I unworthy? I have you know, I was this close to ascending on my own."" Rodney held his thumb and index finger close together. "But why am I arguing with myself? I know that Samantha Carter is perfectly alive. You're not an Ancient; you're just a figment of my imagination."

"Yes, I'm just a creation of your subconscious. Just like that time your subconscious mind created me to give you the bad news. The bad news now is that you won't be ascending; you're going to die and there's not a thing you can do about it.

The hard drives were like a tune, grinding on and off, pausing and restarting to a quicker and quicker until a frantic stretch.

"We're losing him! Hold on Rodney."

(-!--!--!--!--!--!--!--!--!-)

Admiral Lee, the one Colonel Sheppard called the grey-eyed man, had been the one to interrogate John Sheppard and it was just his luck the colonel was such a pain in the ass. The admiral turned the corner and when he was sure no one was looking, his hand went to his belt and activated a hidden beacon. A moment later his body vanished is a haze of blue energy.

Admiral Lee stepped off the transporter. There was a man here, dressed in black, his face hidden in the shadows. "The Centripetal Force is with us, Sir. Captain Kruger will support our cause," Admiral Lee told the man in black.

"Welcome home, operative Tyranus. You have done well," the man said a raspy voice.

Admiral Lee didn't respond to the compliment. "I bring you good news. We have recovered the stargate from the planet."

"Excellent." The man in black smiled. "Everything is going as planned."

To be continued….


	4. Chapter 2

Dakara, homeworld of the Jaffa people, was a desert world of deadly sand dunes and harsh sons. Ten thousand Jaffa warriors appeared over one of these desert dunes, their armor shining brightly in the midday son, blinding anyone looking directly upon them.

"Jaffa Kree!" Shouted the warrior with a shaved head and prominent goatee.

Like a metal tide, the armored Jaffa warriors swoop down the dune. Their destination was a single Tau'ri building protected by a high concrete wall and sentry towers.

An officer of rank stared down from his gun nest as the Jaffa army swarmed closer. "Steady! Get ready to fire on my mark!" Closer and closer the line of Jaffa came then suddenly, two wedge shaped objects shot out of the horizon like bullets. "Death Gliders!" The man yelled. "Get the SAMs up here ASAP!"

The Death Gliders in the air could move much faster than the Jaffa army marching on foot. In a moment, the flying wedges reached the Tau'ri sentry towers just as the SAM launchers took up their positions. The SAMs in the towers and the Gliders in the air fired at the same time. From the SAMS, twin trails of exhaust streaked at the wedged flyers while two bolts of orange plasma from each glider zipped at the Tau'ri's position. The glider's attack was near instantaneous, two bolts of plasma scoring direct hits on one of two towers facing the Jaffa army. The explosive fireball consumed everyone unlucky enough to be up in the tower. The two SAMs already in the air reached the gliders a second later. One missed its target completely but the second missile clipped the Glider's wing. The damaged glider lost control and came down in the courtyard behind the gates, cashing into the main building, and leaving behind a twisted wreck inside a burning hole on the masonry.

"Fire at will! Fire at will!" The order from Captain Wiseman came through load and clear. The captain knew that with only one sentry tower left and against ten thousand Jaffa, they would not last long. Wiseman just hoped the Jaffa did not bring along any more gliders. Three machine gun nests on the last tower and five more on the roof of the main building began to mow down the advancing Jaffa army.

The first line of Jaffa went down before they were even close to the gates, blood soaking the desert sand and the bodies of the dying littering the dunes. However, to the horror of the marines stationed at Dakara, most of the downed Jaffa got up to join the second wave of chargers. The Jaffa from the first line were clearly slower than the fresh second line, lagging behind as they limped along relentlessly. More machine gunfire cut into the Jaffa and the dead or dying spilled their entrails across the desert. Again, the downed Jaffa picked themselves up within minutes to join another wave of attackers. Wave by wave, body by body, the Jaffa crept toward the Tau'ri gates even as the midday sun baked the fresh corps of the dead.

"What the hell are these people?" Wiseman asked in horror.

**Tales from a Galaxy Far Away**  
Chapter 2: A little taste of home  
By Oberon

The desert heat slowly melted the bars of chocolate stuffed in Jack O'neill's pocket. The things tasted like crap when they were all mushy and Jack O'Neill did not took too fondly toward eating them for dinner. Jack spied his companion with the corner of his eye. Blonde, tanned and sweaty; in other words, she was hot. "_Oh for crying out loud,_" Jack scolded himself for the sudden lost of concentration. He was too old for this but his young body had other ideas. "_Was I this horny the first time around?_" With Jaffa out for their blood, the only thing Jack could think about was the blonde he had to keep alive.

Just a little bit away Jack saw the sure sign of approaching Jaffa. Just like old times with the gang…

The Jaffa were a warrior race of humans genetically enhanced by the parasitic alien life forms known as the Goa'uld. At the dawn of the Goa'uld Empire, the Jaffa had received longevity and strength in exchange for worshiping the Goa'uld as gods. The Goa'uld did not share power, not even with each other and as their territory became greater, they turned their attention to their own kind. For thousands of years the Goa'uld fought amongst themselves for dominance and for thousands of years the Jaffa had slaughtered each other in the name of their gods. This had gone on until the people of Earth exposed the Goa'uld for what they truly were, parasites that held the universe through terror and false religion. In the end, the ultimate battle to free the Jaffa had culminated right here on Dakara, where the first Jaffa had entered servitude to the first Goa'uld so many millennia go.

The Jaffa warriors cautiously and methodically combing of the desert came to a sudden and violent end. The ground beneath them exploded with shrapnel flying everywhere. Their leader, caught in the center of the blast zone of an improvised land mine, lost his head, literally. In the confusion a single Tau'ri stood up from behind cover and took down the next closest Jaffa with a Zat'nik'atel and another that was too slow to react fell a second later, arcs of energy writhing over his body.

The Zat'nik'atel was a weapon captured from the Jaffa. Originally, the Goa'uld system lords had designed this weapon for their Jaffa servants as a means of torturing the enemy, for the Zat'nik'atel's sting did not kill the first time. To pay homage to their true form, the Goa'uld fashioned the Zat'nik'atel like a snake which uncoiled when the weapon fired, causing great pain in its victim. If stung in rapid succession, the Zat'nik'atel could kill or vaporize its victim all together. Over the years, the people of Earth had captured many of these weapons during their war with the Goa'uld System Lords. The Tau'ri's collection of Zat'nik'atel became so great that almost every soldier was issued one while on off-world operations.

The last Jaffa had enough sense to dive to the ground, avoiding the Tau'ri's accurate aim. The Jaffa warrior took a wild shot with his staff weapon from his prone position and missed, hitting stone. That was the last thing he did before his body seized up with electric shocking pain.

Jack stood over the fallen Jaffa warriors. "Yup, just like ol' times." Back in the day, SG1 went around the universe blasting Jaffa left and right. Sam, Daniel, Teal'c and him… well that was the OTHER Jack O'neill. This Jack was just a clone but the memory was real. He put a bullet into the head of the Jaffa.

"What are you doing?!" Jack's companion protested in horror.

Jack glared at the young woman hiding behind some rocks. "Look princess, in case you haven't noticed, these are not your everyday normal Jaffa. They don't stay down when you shoot them." Bad enough that he was missing the big fight but he had to baby-sit some diplomat's spoiled brat too. Jack put down another Jaffa just as the warrior began to stir. He really missed Sam, Teal'c and Daniel.

That done, O'neill stripped the armor from two of the fallen Jaffa. He tossed one set to the girl. "Put that on." Jack tried not to look but his body was curious, he barely hid his goofy grin.

"Ew, that's disgusting! I'm not putting on a dead man's stuff." She nudged the armor away with her foot.

"Do it," Jack ordered. "You want to get out of here or not?"

The girl slumped on the nearest rock, her mood suddenly solemn. "What's the point…? My dad's probably dead. My life is over."

Jack rolled his eyes. "Teenagers," Jack muttered, forgetting that he was one of them only a few years ago. Jack found a nice rock beside the teen and parked himself there. "Look…" he did not even know her name.

"Holly," the girl kept her eyes down. "Holly Gelder."

"The ambassador's daughter?" They should be safe for the moment. Jack pulled the Jaffa armor over his head. The thing was hot, just how he remembered them. "I' m sure your old man can talk himself out of trouble. Besides, he's more useful to them alive."

Holly had the faintest of a smile and Jack saw it. She had a sweet face but there was something hard underneath it all. She reminded Jack of Daniel actually.

"I know what you're trying to do but let's face facts. Those Jaffa didn't come to take hostages. They wanted us gone."

"You don't know what." She was right actually. Jack found it hard to argue with such sound logic but he tried anyway. "Look, you're a smart kid so I don't have to tell you what's going to happen if they catch us." Jack hated doing this but fear was a good motivator. "The best you can hope for if that happens is a quick painless death. I'm sure if your dad made it out, and there is a good chance he might have, it would break his heart if something happened to you." A little fear and a dash of hope - always works wonders.

Holly made up her mind. "Turn around," she demanded.

"Excuse me?"

"I can blend in better without these Earth clothes under the armor." She glared at Jack when he hesitated.

"Ok, ok." Jack smirked. He wished he had a mirror right now. "_Control yourself big guy._" Skipping high school social life was the worst mistake ever. It made him easily excitable.

  
  
  
  


The Jaffa warriors that guarded the Stargate in the distance seemed too sharp for Jack O'neill's liking. These Jaffa were alert and that made them dangerous.

"Looks like we'll have to wait 'til nightfall before trying to get to the gate." O'Neill did not have to look at Holly to know she would not like that idea. He did not like this idea any better either, the longer they waited the more likely the Jaffa army would return from their assault on the Earth embassy.

"Can't you take them out with your badass marine skills?" Obviously sarcasm was one of the few traits Jack and Holly shared.

Jack rolled his eyes. "Gee, now why didn't I think of that? Wait, I did and guess what? We die. There is no way I can take these Jaffa in a straight fight." Jack added sheepishly, "And it's Air Force, not the Marines."

"Give me a gun. I can help."

Even after all these years and a new life, the death of Jack's boy still haunted his thoughts. Just as painful as if the accident with Jack's gun happened yesterday. "No way, I'm giving you a gun. So, you can just forget about it."

"I know how to use it," Holly protested. "What? You don't believe me?"

Jack glared at the young woman. "No way, Jose. You're not touching a gun and that's final."

Holly rolled her eye. "But why? Is this a guy thing…?"

"No. Just… no." Ok, she's hot but annoying as hell, he thought.

"But…"

Jack cut her off with a schuss.

"Don't 'shss' me!" Holly glared at Jack.

Jack glared back only to 'shss' her again. Holly fumed but said nothing. Jack thought her pout was kinda cute.

The only thing left to do was to find somewhere to lay low and try their luck at night. "All right, time to go."

"Where we going?" Holly had her face hidden under the Jaffa armor's helmet. Jack had showed her how to activate the mechanism to encase her head in a metal snakehead.

"That over there." Jack pointed to the ruins of the temple behind the Stargate. The once proud and mighty statue that sat starring into the sands of Dakara, which sat atop the temple, was still in ruins 10 years after the Ori attack. "Looks like a nice spot to hide out."

  
  
  
  


Jack resisted the urge to hold Holly's hand when a band of Jaffa appeared on their way to the ruined temple. "Calm down." Jack continued to march, hoping Holly would not give them away. "Just play it cool."

"You try acting cool in this thing." Holly marched along side Jack and never faltered a step, despite the sweat beading on her forehead. When the two Tau'ri finally crossed the Jaffa patrol and the Jaffa didn't even glance at them, Holly finally let out a sigh of relief.

The temple was just up ahead and Jack could already see the hidden wall that once led to the control room for an Ancient weapon hidden inside the temple. The Ori littered the grounds around the temple with wreckage from their attack. Rubble was everywhere. Jack saw that at least the courtyard to the temple was clear of Jaffa. It seems the Jaffa had decided not to rebuild the temple in favor of rebuilding the Free Jaffa council, which the Ori had also destroyed in the attack. There was no sign of any work done on the temple since the attack, and based on the sand and dust that had settled everywhere; Jack guessed that no one ventured to this part of Dakara regularly.

"Ok, we're almost there. Just stay cool and don't run." Jack told Holly a second time. It would be bad if the Jaffa thought something was amiss.

Holly said nothing; she kept her eye on the temple and her breathing normal. The urge to run for safety was eating at her from the inside, but she didn't need Jack to tell her running was a bad idea.

When they got closer, they could see a scripture engraved wall, which was a secret entrance, opened and partially exposed a room behind it. They also saw the room had partially collapsed after the shields protecting it had given out during the Ori assault.

"Ok, this is going to be a little dangerous. You see that room behind the wall?" Jack pointed to the hidden room. "That looks like to be our best bet. Don't touch anything, and I mean it. Don't. Touch. ANYTHING."

"Gee, you think?" Holly replied sarcastically.

  
  
  
  


Jack starred awkwardly at the blonde hiding beside him. "So… what's the ambassador's daughter doing off world?"

Holly shrugged. "Running for my life?" She answered sarcastically.

"No seriously, they don't usually allow that sort of thing."

"I was born here…" Holly became sullen as the memory of her father troubled her thoughts. "My mother…"

Jack suddenly placed his hand over Holly's mouth, which alarmed the ambassador's daughter with his rough hands. Jack motioned for Holly to be quiet then took out the handy corner mirror, the one that kept in his vest. Peering around the wall they hid behind with the mirror, Jack cursed his luck when he saw a band of Jaffa coming through the temple courtyard.

"Jaffa…" Jack quietly mouthed to Holly.

"What are they doing here?" The blonde whispered.

"Gee, I guess they came to kill us," Jack snapped back sarcastically in retaliation for her earlier comment.

The lead Jaffa, a rough man with the mark of Anubus still carved on his forehead, crutched over the grounds leading to the temple's courtyard. He signaled for his men to hold position while he placed his palm over the ground. "These tracks are fresh," he noted.

Jack cursed; the Jaffa must have spotted their footprints. He had to take them out, now. Jack popped out from the cover of the hidden wall while the lead Jaffa was still examining the prints on the ground. The first shot was free and the Tau'ri nailed the still crutching Jaffa with a Zat'nit'atel to the forehead. With his other hand on his P-90, Jack squeezed out five rounds into the Jaffa to the right then zat'ed the next two Jaffa to the left in quick succession. The three Jaffa that remained fired back, one staff blast hit the wall and forced Jack back into cover while the other two bolts sailed into the room Jack and Holly were hiding it and struck the debris in the back of the room, sending up a small cloud of dust.

Jack stuck his hand out from behind cover and fired his Zat'nit'atel in rapid pulses wildly at where he estimated the Jaffa stood. One Jaffa fell, unlucky enough to catch a blue pulse to the leg while he was getting out of the way. The other shots from Jack missed the last two Jaffa but by then they were desperately trying to find cover on open field while shooting off their staff weapons.

Jack again tried his luck with the Zat'nit'atel but this time a lucky shot from the Jaffa hit close enough that the expulsion of heat and debris knocked the Za'nit'atel right out of Jack's hand. The Tau'ri bit his lip and kept himself from crying out. He checked his hand; it stung but most of it had been pelting from bits of rock and none of it had pierced the skin. Jack cursed once more; he didn't know how many more hits from Staff weapons this room could take before they knocked something loose and caused the whole thing to come down on his head. It occurred to him that he could spot the last two Jaffa with the corner mirror so now all he needed was to find a way to shoot them without getting shot first.

There! By the corner, sticking out of a pile of debris, was a staff weapon broken at the shaft. Jack doubt it still fired but it just might work for what he have in mind. He grabbed the broken shaft and pulled, hoping he wouldn't collapse the roof over them. It finally came free with only a slight shifting of the rubble stacked on top. Jack handed the staff to Holly and told her to take one end while he took off his vest and hung it on the other end of the staff.

"Ok, when I give the word, stick it out the corner." Jack laid on the ground with his P-90 at the ready. "Ok, go."

Holly stuck the makeshift clothes hanger out from the wall and immediately Jack's vest had a few new holes courtesy of the Jaffa. At that moment, Jack rolled from behind cover and took his shot. He knew exactly where to aim. A spry of bullets pelted the last two Jaffa until they could hold their ground no longer. The last Jaffa warrior fell to Jack's P-90 before the Tau'ri stopped his roll.

Jack wiped the sweat from his face when the ringing in his ear finally stopped. He could not believe he was still alive, but looking at the Jaffa, he guessed he had won. His job wasn't over yet. He climbed up then stopped. "That was my favorite vest," he remarked sadly. It now sported large burning holes and was quickly turning the polyester to ash.

However, Jack remembered he still needed to clean up the Jaffa. If he left them for too long there was a very good chance they might recover from what Jack thought would be certain fatal wounds, even for a Jaffa. There, that was the last one, a bullet to the head did the trick.

As the last bullet busted open the head of the Jaffa, a strange hissing sound reached Jack's ear. "Damn, snakeheads." To be a host to a Goa'uld was the last thing Jack wanted. He would rather die.

However, the strange creature that appeared in the temple courtyard was much larger than a Goa'uld symbiote. The creature's four mandibles all had sharp spikes at the tip and saliva dripped from them as the creature screeched. It stood on two thin legs and balanced itself with a long tail that tapered to a sharp stinger. Gold and precious stones adorned the creature's two slender arms and hands while the rest of its body wore an ornamented flashy armor more for show than protection. As for the rest of its scaly body, to Jack it looked like a giant Goa'uld with arms and legs.

"Ah, crap…"

Without giving Jack a moment to react, the creature pounced on the Tau'ri with arms raised high, intending to smash the human into the dirt. However, Jack O'neill was not a typical soldier and if he had been, the creature would have succeeded without much effort.

With two lifetimes of combat experience to aid him, Jack brought his P-90 to bear only to watch his bullets bouncing harmlessly off a force field surrounding the creature. Having lost precious seconds, Jack dove out of the creature's path, narrowly avoiding the ground-crushing blow.

Jack regained his balance and tried his luck with the P-90 again only to have it viciously smacked from his hands by a powerful swipe. Seeing Jack was defenseless, the creature came in to deliver the fatal blow. Luckily, the human had enough sense to duck and at the same time stuck his combat knife straight into the creature's hand, right where it had the Goa'uld personal force field generator. The golden hand-device shattered with the force of Jack's thrust but the creature would not let the human pull the knife free and instead tightly gripped Jack's hand with its own free hand.

"I have seen you before," came the deep, throbbing voice of the creature, accompanied by a sadistic kick to Jack's midsection that sent the human flying. It pulled the knife free then tossed it aside. "Why do I know your face? Who are you?" It grabbed Jack by the neck and lifted him off the ground. "Ah, I remember now. You're that Tau'ri, the insolent one." For a moment, its glowing red eyes locked with the human's own. "No, he was older." It chucked. "That means you're a clone."

Jack felt the life being squeezed out of him. The creature's iron grip was unbreakable no matter what he tried. The creature ignored him when Jack slugged its face and only smirked, a frightening thing given its face, when the human tried kicking free. Jack saw the darkness closing in and out of desperation he reached for his sidearm.

"Isn't it ironic, us fighting each other. Clone against clone." While it talked, Jack almost had his fingers around the trigger. "Do you have the memory of that time I tortured your original? No? No matter, we will have all new memories together! Just the two of us clones."

"Ba'al…"

"I'm so glad you remembered-"

Jack quickly tapped three rounds from his sidearm into the creature's long neck, that was all the strength he had left and after the third shot, he fumbled and lost his grip on his gun. His efforts was enough, thankfully, Ba'al wanted to save his own life more than to rob Jack of his. The second round fired by Jack had opened one of the creature's main arteries. Releasing Jack, it clamped down on its throat in a desperate try to hamper the blood squirting from the three bullet wounds.

Through all this, Jack remained conscious. He forced himself to stand then aimed the barrow of his sidearm at the creature's head. Jack got ready to pull the trigger but felt a great force pressing against his chest. The pressure on Jack's chest suddenly exploded forward. Jack realized too late and pulled the trigger frantically but only managed to graze Ba'al's head.

The Ba'al creature staggered to where Jack laid unconscious while still clutching its throat with one hand. It picked up a large piece of a fallen column then stood over Jack's prone body. Ba'al got ready to smash Jack's head in when its body suddenly seized up as blue currents rampaged up and down his nervous system. It dropped the large rock it was holding without injuring Jack, then a second shot from a Zat'nak'atel hit him from behind. Ba'al finally lost consciousness and collapsed just beside the unconscious Tau'ri.

Holly ran to Jack when the snake creature finally fell. She smacked the soldier a few times across the cheeks to see if she can get a response out of him. Slowly and grudgingly, the Tau'ri warrior's eyes fluttered open.

"Ouch…" Jack's vision cleared just as Ba'al's tail twitched.

Holly's eyes suddenly bulged as she felt a sharp pain shoot up her leg, then her face turned to an express of horror as she saw the snake had impaled her left calf with its tail stinger.

Jack saw Ba'al pulled free from Holly's flesh and got ready to do the same sting attack again. "_Oh, no you don't."_ Jack grabbed the nearest thing he could find, the Zat'nak'atel Holly had used to stun the creature the first time. The human fired another electrical beam into Ba'al, followed by another and another until the creature finally went limp.

**Atlantis**

Elizabeth Weir sighed as another hour passed without word form Sheppard or the rescue team sent to rescue him. She sat rigidly in her office, trying to look professional for her staff, if only to keep up morale. "We don't leave our own behind," she repeated to herself. Over the years, these few simple words had meant a great deal to her and to people of the Atlantis Expedition. Sacrifices were necessary; this she also knew to be the truth. God only knew how many she had send to their deaths over the years trying to hold onto the fabled lost city of Atlantis. Was one man worth the lives of those she send to rescue him?

"Unscheduled off world activation," came a voice from the control room,

Suddenly Elizabeth's hope soured. "John, is it you?" she wondered. Elizabeth leaped from her chair.

"Transmission from Stargate Command, ma'am."

Just as quickly, Elizabeth's optimism was crushed. She felt as some had taken an ice pick and stabbed her through the heart., but she didn't let her disappointment show. She scowled but put on a smile quickly. "General," she greeted the image of a man in the laptop display. "It's good to see you," she smiled a forced smile.

General O'Neill waved at Doctor Weir. In his advanced age the General was long due for retirement, but the death of Hank Landry ten years ago had forced Jack O'Neill to again take charge of Stargate Command. The man in the LCD display looked weathered and worn; the wrinkled skin around his eyes indicated a lack of sleep. All in all Jack O'Neill looked very tired.

"Hey Doc," said O'Neill as he waved at Elizabeth. "Listen, the I.O.A. wants McKay on Earth ASAP." The I.O.A. stood for the International Oversight Advisory, a cabal of men and woman given power to administrate all of Earth's association with aliens and all things having to do with the Stargate. This included the Atlantis Expedition. "They got this idea into their heads that McKay would be better-off being treated in one of the facilities here on Earth."

"With all due respect, general, the best doctors are here, on Atlantis. I know because I picked them myself."

"Well, I TRIED telling them that, but they keep going on about how the Jaffa turned on them and that we have no more allies left. These aren't exactly reasonable people at the moment, so why don't you just pack up McKay and get ready to ship him through the gate before things get out of hand." The look on the General's face told Elizabeth that arguing wouldn't accomplish anything.

"I see," Elizabeth measured her words. She wanted to tell the General what the I.O.A. could do with themselves, but she held her tongue. "Would it possible for me to plead my case directly to the I.O.A.?"

"It wouldn't do you any good. Their minds are made up." The General frowned. "Sorry, I did everything I could."

"It will be few hours before Doctor McKay is able to travel. When he's ready we'll sent him through the Stargate," Weir replied in a voice everyone knew meant she hadn't given up yet.

The General nodded. "Ok, I'll have the medical team here on stand by." He turned to Walter who was not visible on Elizabeth's screen. The Stargate shut off a second later.

Elizabeth sighed once more. "All right, tell Doctor Keller to get McKay prepped for transport."

Elizabeth looked forlornly to the Stargate and the ocean beyond it. _John, where are you?_


End file.
